Credit to Avenue for proofreading this chapter

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Three hours were a safe amount of time for him to save Esca’s party and the caravan. But his money could only buy him one hour, which was barely enough. If he didn’t do this right, Esca, her escort, his pet, his slave and himself would be annihilated by the chaotic users.

“Sir, you can now enter one of the cubes.”

“Wait, I need to make a phone call first.”

“....Okay.”

Daniel took out his phone to call someone.

“[Hello, it’s me, Daniel. I need you guys to move the plan ahead of time because of some circumstances.]”

“[ I just came back from my part-time job right now and I’m stuck in the train delayed, so forget about moving forward the plan, since I can’t even login at the scheduled time.]”

“[What?! How about the others?]”

“[ I don’t have their numbers, my husband has them but I cannot reach him.]”

“[I see….By the way could you borrow me some money…]”

*click*

“( She hung up.)”

Closing his eyes, Daniel tried to calmly think, he needed to change his plan to have a higher chance of success.

“................”

“Sir? You can enter the cube now.”

“Five minutes.”

“Huh?”

“I’m sorry, I need to cancel the order for now. I will order again after five minutes and forty seconds.”

“O-Okay.”

From his house to the cyber cafe, Daniel took less than ten minutes, by waiting another five minutes and forty second, Daniel would login exactly fifteen minutes from the time he logged out.

The raid party would login one hour from that time or approximately fifteen minutes in real life. The hour where the raid party would login was the most dangerous time and where Esca’s party needed serious protection. Besides, he would need the extra fifteen minutes for his plan later, rushing to login would not do him any good.

Fifteen minutes in real life really felt like an hour in the game Daniel could only hope Esca’s party could defend themselves in that amount of time.

Daniel sat at the cafe sofa to wait. He could only wait and believe. Believe in Esca’s escorts, believe in Esca thousand skill, believe in Kai and Thorin’s fighting spirit.

“(And I need to…..)”

******

“(.....believe in those two!)”

Puzzled with Chrono’s sudden action, Jason and James still can’t decide on what to do. They could catch the spies and earn credit. The alert guards could get organized in time and the raid could be defended properly.

But from their past experience, they knew Chrono had something else planned. Chrono was the worst enemy, but that time Chrono were their ally. As an ally, Jason and James could not deny how capable Chrono was.

“Jason, what do you think?”

“Hmm…...No matter what, he would never do something that will affect his quest badly. But catching the spies is a no brainer right now.”

“Catching the spies may be harder now without Chrono since we have a bad record, no one would believe us.”

“Yes, and it seems Chrono rushing outside of the checkpoint was something out of his calculation. The expected time of the raid has come , if he stays outside his life may be in danger and his plan would perhaps fail.”

“If we catch the spies first we will be late and won’t be able to save Chrono. But if we leave the spies and go straight to saving Chrono the spies will help opening the checkpoint door and the caravan will be in danger.”

“Hmm...James, I think we need to just rely on your instinct.”

“Heh, I knew you’d said that.”

“That’s the only thing we can do. Killing the spies.”

Preparing for the worse, Jason and James drew their weapons. Jason with his greataxe and James with his sword and shield. And if they were wrong, they would get the chaotic status and get hunted by their fellow bounty hunters.

“Here goes nothing.”

“We need to kill them while they are defenseless.”

“”HYAARRGGHH!!””

The both of them do not have clear evidence, but they have four targets that they were sure were the spies. Jason and James were running straight to one of the target spies that was drinking at one of the checkpoint walls.

“Eh?!”

“”DIE!””

Without any questions, Jason and James just jump on their target with the ambush attack. Not comprehending what’s going on, the puzzled user could not defend himself properly.

“Hey, wait why…”

Zass!

Zass!

“Arrgh!”

“One down! Three more to go!”

“Let’s go!”

Reaching the other target, Jason and James doing the same thing. This time their target could not even respond properly to Jason and James joint ambush attacked and drop dead in a mere second.

“Two more to go!”

After two people died from Jason and James sudden frenzy attack, the checkpoint was in chaos while the guards on alert.

“W-What happened?”

“S-Someone, no, two people have gone crazy!”

Once they arrived at the third target, there were a bunch of guards facing them while preparing for combat. The guards didn’t know Jason and James target but it the target himself have figure out what happened and hide himself behind the guards.

“Calm yourself, sir!”

“Go away, we need to kill him!”

‘Shield Bash!’

Using his body weight, James bashed his shield onto the guards, throwing the guards out of his way. With the path James just created, Jason dashed to his target and bludgeoned him with his greataxe.

‘Head Splitter!’

Using his sword, the spy tried to block the attack. But a simple sword could not block Jason powerful attack, the spy sword split into two while Jason greataxe hit his head in the process.

“S-Spare me.”

Coming out of nowhere, James thrust his target with his sword before he and Jason continue to attack the target together relentlessly.

“Final target!”

“S-Sir, why are you doing this?”

Before he followed James, Jason take something from the spy drop and throw it to one of the guard.

“T-This is….Chaotic insignia!”

Users that was in the hidden ‘Spy Guild’ have the innate ability to hide their infamy status that would enable them to blend with normal users.

These abilities was called ‘Hide skill’. But this skill also come with great penalty such as the wearer combat prowess would be lessen by twenty percent. That was the reason Jason and James could obliterate the spies quickly.

The spies other characteristic was, like other chaotic users, they would drop a chaotic insignia engraved with their names if they were slain by normal users. These chaotic insignia were used to claim the bounty from bounty hunter guild.

“The final one!”

“I will not go down without a fight!”

Even when their final target fought back, Jason and James obliterated him easily with their joint attack. The clueless guards around them tried to defend the spy, but fail miserably.

“Now, let’s go!”

“H-Hey.”

Without explaining anything, Jason and James went out of the checkpoint in searched of Chrono. As the ‘Royal Hunter’ James could define on Chrono last known location.

When the confused guards trying to chased Jason and James, the other guards came to them and stop them.

“Wait, I think I know why they kill these guys.”

“But they are getting away”

“Wait, just listen to me,take a look at this ‘chaotic insignia’. An insignia that will only drop if the one slain was a chaotic user and normal users will never drop this. Did you see those two’s eye colour?”

“Y-Yes...Despite killing four normal users, their eyes were completely normal. A spy will never have that kind level of fighting prowess which means….”

“......We need to report this to Gilbert.”

*****

With the increased amount of Chaotic users login, Esca’s party could only fight their way to the said location. Trying to find their way to the checkpoint without Chrono ‘Fear Death skill’ was foolish. At that time, they could only believe in Chrono last instruction.

As they kept running south, finally they found the ‘Safe Spot’ Chrono talking about. It was a middle sized plain in the woods.

“We have arrive, what now?”

“WE WAIT FOR MY MASTER.”

“I hope your master doesn’t come late, because we have one hell of company to serve.”

“What the hell happened here? Is there some kind of chaotic festival around here?”

“T-This time I will help.”

Circling themselves with each other back, Esca’s party found that they were surrounded, hundred of red eyes lurking behind the forest shadows.

Since most of the chaotic users were assassin classes where they excel in stealth and ambushes, direct combat was their weak point. One of the reason Chrono choose the ‘Safe Spot’ was because the plain renders half of the chaotic skills useless.

On the other hand, with that many chaotic users Esca’s two escorts could only wonder how they would get out of that situation.

As the situation looked grim, Edward thought about something. An idea on how to get out of that situation.

“Guys, they still haven’t entered the combat range. If we logout now we will not get ‘force escape combat penalty’.”

“I guess that is the only way.”

“N-No, please don’t log out now!”

“Why Esca? This is the only way”

“B-Because…..Because our caravan will leave us if we didn’t get there in time.”

“We will think about that later, right now we need to get out of this situation.”

“Don’t worry, we will catch up to the…”

“NO! Just don’t log out.”

“Sorry miss, can’t obey you on this one.”

As Edward finished his remark, his avatar start to fade before it vanished completely.

“If we don’t log out now, we will just die.”

Following Edward, Jayce avatar also start to fade before it vanished completely.

“N-No……”

“MISS, THEY ARE APPROACHING, BRACE YOURSELF!”

“Y-Yes, I will help.”

Esca took out a staves from her big merchant bag. The staves looked like a simple rookie magician staves, the truth, it was a rare unique magician staves.

Without wasting anytime, Esca held the staves while chanting spells targeted to goblin Kai’s body.

‘Titan’s Strength!’

Blessed with the strength of a titan, your strength increases

‘Super Haste!’

Blessed with strengthening magic, your speed increases

‘Absolute Defense!’

Protected with solid magic, reduces physical damages received

‘Magic Wall!’

Protected by invisible walls, magical damages received are reduced

‘Longevity!’

Blessed with more vitality, health increases

‘Mana Pool!’

Hidden potential unlocked, mana pool increases

Once she’s done with goblin Kai, Esca turned her attention to Thorin to cast enchantment spell on him too before she cast it on herself.

“GREAT ENCHANTMENT SKILL, WE COULD DEFEND OURSELVES PROPERLY WITH THIS.”

“ROAR!!”

“I-I hope my enchanting skill was good enough.”

As the chaotic users drawing nearer, Esca casted one last area effect skill.

‘Slow Field!’

Slow Field creates a five hundred meter square around you for one hour, any enemy entering the field would have their speed decreased by 40%..

“HERE WE GO!”

When the chaotic users entered their attacking range, goblin Kai and Thorin started to retaliate. Goblin Kai level was only in mid fifty, but his relentless training has put his swords skill on advance level.

The bonus physical stats he received from his training and he being a monster race had enhanced his physical stats growth. Combined with Esca’s sage like enchantment spell, goblin Kai could fight users around level two hundred with ease.

As a beast type monster, Thorin was blessed with a huge amount of physical stats as a bonus. He was just a baby-drake, regardless he was still from the dragon kin. As the mighty dragon kin, Thorin received the most stat bonus out of any beast type monsters in the world of Emperor Saga.

With Esca’s enchantment spell, Thorin could be regarded as mid level dungeon boss that needed a fully equipped party to take him down.

Maintaining his dignity, goblin Kai walked to his first target while holding his sword tightly. Without waiting for goblin Kai, a chaotic user charges at him and tries to attack him with his sword which goblin Kai easily countered with a fatal blow.

“DIE!”

With unmatched composure, goblin Kai turned to his second target and unleashed flurry of strong and swift blow. Any chaotic users charging to him while underestimating him paid a heavy price, whilst any chaotic user who hadn't paid the same price, were no match for him.

Discipline, speed, power, goblin Kai had it all. His composure makes it look easy and as if he was someone who was used to fight thousands of battles, he beats higher level chaotic users with experience.

“ROAAR!”

“We need to attack it toge...Arrgh!”

Unlike goblin Kai, Thorin charged at any living being near him. Except for goblin Kai and Esca, Thorin attacked everyone else furiously. With his amazing speed and strength, no one could stop his carnage.

‘Invisibility’

You have been granted invisibility for an hour, no one can see or detect you without getting close.

With goblin Kai and Thorin protection, no one could get closed enough to Esca . But the chaotic users kept on coming. Without any sign the battle could end, goblin Kai and Thorin could only kept on fighting.

As the battle drags on, goblin Kai and Thorin stamina gradually decrease. Esca could heal their health but she has no spell for stamina recovery.

Goblin Kai had lesser stamina but his skill and experience help him in preserving his stamina. Thorin’s beastly way of fighting made his stamina deplete faster, thankfully he has much higher stamina.

Despite of having higher fighting prowess then most of the chaotic users, they were greatly outnumbered which was a great disadvantage.

*huff* *huff* *huff*

*huff**huff**huff*

“They’re getting tired, keep on fighting!”

‘Shield Bash!’

‘Guillotine Strike!’

As the party of three almost facing defeat, Jason and James arrived giving them a new hope. To reach Esca, Jason and James had to fight the chaotic users along the way thus delaying their arrival.

“Finally, we reach this place.”

“Where’s Chrono?”

“MASTER WOULD ARRIVE LATER.”

“Well, I guess we need to defend against this mass so we could meet your master later.”

“Did the merchants in our caravan bring that many valuables? With THIS many users isn’t their shares when splitting the loot too little??”

“E-Erm...It was known to every users that a merchant needed to bring items and worth three thousand gold, besides their goods and the money needed to pay the guards, each merchant needed at least ten thousand gold.”

As Esca leaves her comment, Jason and James eyes widened. Since the caravan had three hundred merchant, it carries no less then three million gold worth of money.

With that much money involved, Jason and James finally understand why the scale of battle was that much.

“L-Let me enchant both of you.”

“You could do that? Sure.”

With the same enchanting spells as goblin Kai and Thorin, Jason and James fighting attribute increase greatly. The shocking power of Esca’s enchantment spell put Jason and James in awe.

Since they already upgraded their class once and they had higher level compared to goblin Kai and Thorin, Jason and James was a great addition to the team.

Their fighting skill doesn’t fell short either, their real life and in-game training had made them excellent battle hardened warrior.

“Heh, compared to that brat these guys were too weak!”

******

As the battle drag on, the party was mentally tired. With Esca spell, their fighting prowess was on excellent level, but fighting for an hour could be mentally weary. The prolonged battle has made everyone to somewhat drop their guard.

Thankfully nothing bad happened as they dropped their guard but the frustration of the never-ending battle have made them wonder whether that battle was winnable or not.

“Where is this master of yours?!”

“I feel like these guys have gotten stronger, it seems higher level chaotic users have started to log in!”

“MASTER!.....”

“ROAAR!”

“Mister Scam….Please come…”

BOOOMM!!

BOOOMM!!

As the sudden explosion occurred, the forest was covered in smoke, the confused chaotic users were bewildered as they never heard an explosion was involved in their raid plan.

“Argh!”

“Aarrgh!”

“Aaarrgh!”

As the smoked was covering the entire area, the shouts and screams was heard here and there. And as the smoked cleared a man wearing a skull mask was in the middle of the chaotic user's corpes.

“H-He has arrived!”

*****